Trump assures he’s ‘SAFE AND WELL’ after Secret Service fires at man armed with assault rifle at president’s golf resort
Former President Donald Trump issued a statement shortly following an apparent assassination attempt at his West Palm Beach, Fla., golf resort where a suspect was allegedly caught with a high-powered rifle in the bushes.
“There were gunshots in my vicinity but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!” he wrote Sunday after the second such attempt, this time as he teed off at his Trump International Golf Course.
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“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!” he continued.
“I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again. May God bless you.”
Law enforcement sources said suspect Ryan Routh, 58, allegedly got as close as 300 to 500 yards away from Trump around 2 p.m. — sticking his scoped AK-47-style rifle through a chain-link fence as he hid in the bushes. An eagle-eyed Secret Service agent, who was a golf hole ahead of the former president, spotted Routh and opened fire.
Routh allegedly fled the scene in his car and was later busted more than 40 miles north on I-95.
Photos from the scene showed Routh allegedly left behind a backpack, the rifle and a GoPro attached with wires.
The harrowing incident — the second assassination attempt in two months — raised concerns over Trump’s security.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Trump’s security detail was lighter because he isn’t a sitting president.
In July, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas would only say that Trump’s level of protection was enhanced and that “personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.”
Routh, a native of North Carolina, frequently posted online about politics, bashing Trump in an April 22 post declaring, “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
He claimed Trump wants to “make Americans slaves against master.”
